Point Park University

Point Park University Adjunct Facility have voted to unionize and the administration seems to be ready to let that happen.

“This is long over due,” said PPU adjunct English and French teacher Rebecca Taksel. “We adjuncts… have been marginalized for so long.”

Following the 172-79 vote, the University responded with a written statement, which read in part,

“We are pleased that so many adjunct faculty members took the time to make their voices heard on this important issue. We respect the decision made by those eligible to vote and look forward to working with all faculty members to fulfill Point Park’s mission of educating the next generation.”

The university had originally fought the unionization effort run by the United Steel Workers.

“As soon as we are officially recognized next Wednesday (July 2) we will be sending them (University administrators) a letter asking them for dates for bargaining,” said USW organizer Randa Ruge who thinks they will be able to negotiate better pay for the workers.

Like any English professor, Clint Benjamin spends a lot of his time grading papers.

“There’s a mountain – a teetering Matterhorn of papers at the end of the weekend, or during the week,” Benjamin said. “You’ve just gotta get through them.”

By his own estimate, Benjamin spends 30 to 40 hours a week on grading alone. He also has to attend meetings, answer emails, keep office hours, and commute between the Community College of Allegheny County and Duquesne University campuses, where in a typical week he prepares and teaches five sections’ of English and writing classes.

“Sex, democracy and rock ‘n’ roll” take the stage at the Pittsburgh Playhouse this weekend when the colorful life of our nation’s seventh president is performed in the rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.

The show’s director, Michael McKelvey, says the show portrays the leader in a time where the “true” roots of democracy dominated the political sphere.

McKelvey relates that power and democracy became a sort of drug for Jackson and he became obsessed with relating to his constituents and trying to appease every voice.

Even though the battle of Gettysburg was fought more than 150 years ago, Point Park University business professor George Bromall says there are lessons to be learned from that war, which are still relevant today. Lessons of supply and demand, transportation, construction, and more.

Through a class titled Business History Perspectives, professor Bromall takes groups of undergraduates to the battlefields of Gettysburg to teach the importance of adaptive leadership.

Broadway star Patrick Cassidy is in town directing the musical OKLAHOMA! at Point Park University. He's been in show business his entire life thanks to his famous mother, actress Shirley Jones. She starred in the film version of OKLAHOMA!

While one might think Cassidy would be tempted to get input from his mother about directing the stage version, he says “I haven’t asked her one question.”

Jones says she's willing to help her son, but understands that he wants to take a different approach with the Rodgers & Hammerstein production.